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Freed captive describes being taken by Hamas, ‘spiderweb’ of tunnels in Gaza
FOX News’ Trey Yingst reports the latest from southern Israel.
One of the two Israeli hostages released yesterday by Hamas is now speaking out about her time as a captive of the Palestinian terrorist group, describing a “spiderweb” of tunnels underneath the Gaza Strip where she was fed only one meal per day.
Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was taken from Israel on Oct. 7 alongside her 83-year-old husband Oded, who still remains held inside the Gaza Strip. Lifshitz said civilians beat her once she was brought into Gaza before being moved into an extensive tunnel system where Hamas did provide hostages with some medicine and hygiene supplies, according to Fox News Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst.
“My mom is telling the horrific stories. She is saying that many, many people — a swarm of people came through the fence,” her daughter, Sharone Lifschitz, told reporters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, describing the moments in which Yocheved saw the Hamas militants approaching.
“My mom is saying she was taken on the back of a motor bike with her body with her legs on one side and her head on the other side,” Sharone Lifschitz added. “That she was taken through the plow fields with men in front on one side and men behind her.”
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Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, who was held hostage in Gaza after being abducted during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, speaks to members of the press in Tel Aviv a day after being released by Hamas militants. (AP/Ariel Schalit)
She also said how her mother was brought into a “a huge network of tunnels underneath Gaza that looked like a spiderweb,” according to the BBC.
Yocheved herself said people assigned to guard her had “told us they are people who believe in the Quran and wouldn’t hurt us,” also noting how she and other hostages were fed one meal a day of cheese and cucumber, The Associated Press reported.
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This photo provided by Ichilov hospital shows Yocheved Lifshitz in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Jenny Yerushalmy/Ichilov hospital via AP)
Prior to their capture from their home in the Nir Oz kibbutz near the Israel-Gaza border, Yocheved and her husband were activists who helped sick Gazans receive medical care in Israel, her grandson Daniel Lifshitz told Reuters.
“They are human rights activists, peace activists for all their life,” Daniel Lifshitz was quoted as saying.
In this image taken from video released by al-Qahera News, Yocheved Lifshitz is helped by the Red Cross to waiting ambulances at the Rafah border crossing on Monday, Oct. 23, after being released by Hamas militants. (al-Qahera News via AP)
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“For more than a decade, they took… sick Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, not from the West Bank, from the Gaza Strip every week from the Erez border to the hospitals in Israel to get treatment for their disease, for cancer, for anything,” he added.
Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.